CPS reorganization: Brizard to realign 'mini-superintendents'

'This is not about shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic,' he says

Two months into his new role overseeing Chicago Public Schools, CEO Jean-Claude Brizard has begun reorganizing a school system he calls “fragmented.” (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)

Two months into his new role overseeing Chicago Public Schools, CEO Jean-Claude Brizard has begun reorganizing a school system he calls "fragmented."

Brizard will tell Chicago Board of Education members Wednesday that the district will change the structure of its middle managers, whom some in the system call "mini-superintendents."

The number of chief area officers will be pared from 24 to 19, renamed "schools chiefs" and grouped to include all the high school and elementary principals in a region so the chiefs can work to align curriculum.

"That's a big change," said Barbara Radner, director of DePaul University's Center for Urban Education. "Until we fix the fact that eighth-graders are graduating unprepared for high school, we'll continue to have a high dropout rate for high school and kids won't be prepared for college."

Restructuring middle management and central office staff has been a top priority for most new CEOs in Chicago. In fact, the newly dubbed schools chiefs were called area instructional officers before they became chief area officers. But Brizard promises his district remodeling will be different.

"This is not about shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic," he said. "It really is a different look. You're not going to see the level of independence in the area as you saw in the past. We're going to create a level of coherence within those areas."

Shortly before he left office, then-interim CEO Terry Mazany had suggested restructuring area officers too. He said area officers each determined their own assessment tests and curricula, leading to a districtwide disconnect that he called chaotic and fractious.

Brizard's changes also will include a handful of new leadership positions at the central office, some promotions and a shuffling of bureaucracy that might not equal budget savings right away, but are expected to spur staff reductions in the fall.

Although CPS now budgets for 24 CAOs, only 16 people hold those positions because of unfilled vacancies. Half of those 16 will stay in their jobs, with the new titles and structure.

Others will take on new roles, such as Area 9 CAO Jennifer Cheatham, who will become the chief of instruction, which heads the office of teaching and learning. Some of the rest are planning to leave the district, sources said.

The district is facing a $612 million deficit. As CPS tries to close the budget gap, officials already have announced $75 million in cuts at the central office, eliminated across-the-board raises for teachers and have cut 1,000 teaching positions. Union officials have fought the rescinding of their raises and will begin sitting down with CPS officials for negotiations starting Monday.

Previous administrations have long been criticized for cutting what they called a "bloated" central office only to add more bureaucracy with higher-paying salaries. But Brizard says he wants more downtown staffers, many of them left without supervision over years of budget cuts, to report directly to district executives. So he'll also be announcing a leadership structure Wednesday that will attempt to link everyone in central office with his cabinet.

"Right now we have a system that's fragmented and you've got silos everywhere," Brizard said. "Our goal is to destroy the silos while reducing the bureaucracy so we can push money back to the kids, back to the classroom."

Radner said that while the mid-layer structure appears similar under Brizard, what's new is the focus on collaboration between schools in a region, and an emphasis on collaboration.

In other district matters, officials on Wednesday will consider seeking additional proposals for a districtwide email system. The district had spent a year training and testing out and receiving teacher input on Google's email and document sharing system that some were expecting to be installed this fall.

"It blows my mind," said teacher Eric Skalinder, a music teacher at Kelly High School who was looking forward to the Google email system. "CPS is now embarking on the same process that they completed to implement the same type of inputs they retracted."